Geniza Lab

Small fragment from a letter. The writer informed that the betrothal and writing of the ketubah was done after Yom Kippur. AA

Document in Arabic script. Chancery hand? Mentions Qāḍī l-Quḍā. On verso there is a vidduy in Hebrew.

Letter from Abūn b. Ṣadaqa, in Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Asks Nahray to convey his gratitude to someone; mentions the arrival of R. Natan. Needs further examination

This is the beginning of a very fragmentary letter which mentions a certain al-Dar'i (Dar'a is a town in Morocco). It is possible that the author is referring to the judge Avraham b. Yaʿaqov al-Dar'i, who was active in Alexandria around 1100 (see Goitein, Med Soc, v. 1, pp. 53, 407 fn 45: v. 3, p. 481 fn 171: v. 4, p. 399 fn 84: v. 5, p. 591 fn 173. See also Cohen, Jewish Self Government, pp 215 and 241-2, for a discussion of a letter in which Natan b. Yehuda accuses al-Dar'i of causing his death). The verso is also a letter, though it is unclear whether the two are related.

This is the verso of another letter, though the two seem to be unrelated. It is likely that this letter is a draft, as it seems to peter off and there are diagonal lines written across much of the text. The author mentions an old woman, and the only legible name is Ibn al-Faraj, though there is not enough information to identify this person.

Late accounts in Judaeo-Arabic

The opening page of a book in Judaeo-Arabic by al-ʿĀrif al-Māhir. . . al-Mutaṭabbib. . .

A piece of the opening page of the abridgement of the Karaite linguist Abu l-Faraj Harun's "Hidayat al-Qari" (aka Kitab al-Shurut). See the edition by Ilan Eldar (based on Genizah documents), "Mukhtasar Hidayat al-Qari," Leshonenu, 51 (1986–87), pp. 3–41. ASE.

Recto: bottom half of a letter in Ladino from Shemuel Sidi (same as T-S 12.318 and T-S 12.381). Verso: unclear, needs examination. Long list of names, mostly Shimons. ASE.

Late accounts probably in Judaeo-Arabic.

Recto: Geomancy castings. May be related to AIU VII.F.32. Includes two questions about the illness of David b. Esther: Is it earthly or from God? And what medicines will help him? Verso: Astronomical tables depending on Zacut's tables of 1513 described in Goldstein, B.R. and J. Chabás, '"ransmission of computational methods within the Alfonsine corpus: the case of the tables of Nicholaus de Heybech," Journal for the History of Astronomy 39 (2008), pp. 345-55, esp. pp. 354-5 (described). 34 lines. Times of true opposition (full-moon) for each month in the year 1796-97 computed (date expressed as 557). Abraham Zacut (1452-1515) credited on line 1 for the method of determining true oppositions. Information from JRL online catalogue.

Hebrew poetry, late.

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic from Raḥamim Abzaradel to Moshe ben Naʿim dated 14 September 1827 (22 Elul 5587).

This is the end of a letter. A certain Abu al-Ḥasan is mentioned, though the document provides too little information to identify him. The author also mentions a short document (wurayqa) which is being kept with a man named Shelomo. The verso is blank.

Fragment of a late legal document in which someone, perhaps Faraj Allāh, acknowledges an investment of Venetian gold from Sulaymān Faraḥ.

Late accounts probably in Judaeo-Arabic.

Legal document dated 20 October 1800 (1 Heshvan 5561), Fustat, in which Me'ir ben Naʿim acknowledges an investment of 60 reales, equivalent (?) to 90 silver muayyadis, from Sulṭāna the widow of Yosef Mizraḥī.

Recto: Engagement (shiddukhin) document, dated 18 June 1795 (1 Tammuz 5555), for Moshe b. [left blank] and Sara bt. David Russo. Verso: A geomancy casting; the question is crossed out but may be legible ("Is . . . good for me or not?")